Since discovering Janelle Monae when she released The ArchAndroid in 2010, I've closely watched her career and followed her performances, excited to see how she evolved and exploded as an artist. With the release of The Electric Lady, Monae continues the adventures of Cindi Mayweather, the android who is fighting to save the citizens of Metropolis. Sounds a bit trippy, right? The Electric Lady is parts four and five of Janelle Monae's seven-part Metropolis series, inspired by a film of the same name. But if you've already listened to her first two albums, you know this already. Suites IV and V (aka The Electric Lady, disc one and two) stay true to Monae's unique and exploratory style, combining funk, R&B, jazz, and a variety of other aural landscapes and layers. The difference between this album and previous releases from Monae is that these two suites are packed with support from a variety of musicians such as Prince, Erykah Badu, Solange Knowles, Miguel, Esperanza Spalding, Cee-Lo Green and re-appearing on this album, Big Boi. That's an impressive list of musicians partnering with Ms. Monae for this album! But what's really cool is that her style hasn't changed. The sound of a futuristic dystopia is still captured in her lyrics and the layers of sound from track to track, including interludes of one-minute snippets of a Metropolis radio station, WDRD Metropolis 105, which has some fun and humourous clips that highlight the fact that the album is a concept series. The album opens with the "Suite IV Electric Overture", which sounds like you're watching the introduction of a classic spy film (James Bond, anyone?) before moving into "Given Em What They Love", a tightly-wound, driving track which captures the angst and anticipation of Cindi Mayweather's fight to free the Metropolis citizens. Notable tracks from Suite IV are "Q.U.E.E.N.", a single featuring Erykah Badu, and "Dance Apocalyptic", which sounds very similar to The ArchAndroid and has also been featured in her Cover Girl commercial. The suite ends with a "Goldfinger" sounding track called "Look Into My Eyes". Suite V begins with another electric overture, and moving into the second track, has a distinctly lighter, groovier, funkier feeling on "It's Code". Cindi Mayweather is in love! And it continues with more emotional tracks that are smoother in sound, such as "Can't Live Without Your Love". A notable listen with retro sounds that throwback to the 80s and 90s is "What An Experience", before moving into two Wondamix remixes of "Q.U.E.E.N." and "Electric Lady". What you need to know is that Janelle Monae's music continues to make you want to dance, start to finish, and its an interesting listen as she takes you through a cyber-adventure via her exploration of genre-combining, funk-driven music. This electric lady is on fire, and I suspect you'll continue to see more and more of her working with other mainstream musicians in the next few years. Enjoy.   [spotify id="spotify:album:3bnHtSmmsgJiG82hGCmsq9" width="300" height="380" /]